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FBI arrests person in Connecticut after probe into email threats against Burlington

A Connecticut man has been arrested on accusations that he sent a series of emails threatening violence against city schools, the airport, civic institutions and public officials, Burlington police said Thursday.

A Connecticut man has been arrested on accusations that he sent a series of emails threatening violence against city schools, the airport, civic institutions and public officials, Burlington police said Thursday.

The police said Roland Prejean, 51, of New Haven, Connecticut, "threatened to engage in a spree of murderous violence against the community." Prejean, who is also known as George Gravelle, was arrested Wednesday.

Police said there is no reason to believe the threats presented an actual danger to the community. No other people are being sought in connection to the incident at this time.

Prejean has engaged in this type of behavior in the past and has spent time in prison for similar conduct, according to police and court records.

Prejean appeared in U.S. District Court in Connecticut on Wednesday on allegations that he violated conditions of his federal supervised release from his 2010 case, announced the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut. He was ordered detained following his hearing.

Prejean is under investigation for sending multiple threatening communications and for mailing multiple letters containing white powder to several federal and state offices, and community organizations in September 2018, according to a news release from the Connecticut-based U.S. Attorney's Office.

Federal prosecutors in Connecticut are alleging that Gravelle failed to comply with certain conditions of his supervised release, including failing to notify the U.S. Probation Office of a change of residence, and failing to comply with a mental health treatment requirement, the news release states.

The investigation into Prejean's alleged conduct is continuing. Anyone with pertinent information is asked to call the FBI at 203-777-6311.

Bombings and guns mentioned in airport threat

Threats against the Burlington International Airport were received via email to the airport's information desk11:20 p.m. Tuesday, according to Aviation Director Gene Richards. He said the threats mentioned bombings and guns, but Richards referred requests for further specifics about the threats to police.

The airport immediately contacted the Burlington Police Department, the Vermont State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Transportation Security Administration. Security officials for each airline were also contacted.

No flights were affected as a result, but flights were over for the night anyways, Richards said.

Law enforcement swept the entire airport — all the terminals, the tarmac and the garage — to look for explosives or other weapons. Richards said the FBI determined that the threats were likely not credible.

This is the first threat the airport has received in Richards' approximately six years at the helm, he said.

"We've been very lucky that we have not received these threats," Richards said. "I and my staff took it extremely seriously. We turned over every rock and made sure we were there to make sure the flying public was safe the following morning."

Burlington school commissioners threatened

Burlington School District spokesman Rus Elek said on Thursday that three or possibly more commissioners received emailed death threats on Tuesday evening. The threats were immediately reported and the district was informed that the individual who sent the messages was known to police and FBI, who were collaborating on the case.

“We were told there was no immediate danger,” Elek said of the district’s decision to not to raise the threat levels or inform the public. “We didn’t want people to panic.”

Elek said that principal’s of all the schools were told “to practice safety procedures without creating an alarm.”

“Threats didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason. They looked cut and pasted,” Elek said. The letters didn’t appear to be personally connected to district decisions, he added.

Roland Prejean's criminal history

Prejean has a prior federal conviction for similar behavior in September of 2010, when he sent several threatening letters to a postal worker and a probation officer among others, which resulted in 70-month sentence in federal prison followed by supervised release.

He had embarked on a cross-country road trip that year, according to prosecutors in Connecticut, and had mailed dozens of letters threatening to kill public and private citizens and blow up buildings.

"Many of the letters were filled with racist and anti-Semitic rants, and included threats of dismemberment, cannibalization, and other horrific crimes designed to wreak terror in the minds of the letters’ recipients," prosecutors wrote.

Prejean’s defense attorney in the 2010 case, J. Patten Brown III, later wrote that his client has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder.

“Prejean is a troubled man with a substantial history of severe mental illness,” Brown wrote in a memo arguing for a lesser sentence. He added that Prejean has spent significant portions of his life in hospital settings.

In one letter Prejean sent to the Connecticut postal branch manager, he wrote that he would skin a postal worker and then eat the body, according to court documents.

"My suggestion to you is to run from your building the second after you finish reading this," he wrote. "If you warn anyone before you do, I will kill all your family members. Take care + God bless."